- "Talismans of Transformation allow the wearer to change shape in the physical realm, to become an animal and tap into the animal's spirit essence, for example."
- ―Talzin
The Talismans of Transformation allow the wearer to change shape in the physical realm, to become an animal and tap into the animal's spirit essence. They were dark side artifacts used by the Nightsisters of Dathomir.
Properties[]
The Talismans of Transformation were crafted on Dathomir by the Shamans of the Nightsisters. As with all other Nightsister artifacts, the Talismans of Transformation belonged to the community of the Nightsisters. According to Talzin, the keeping of the talismans was the responsibility of the Nightsister Shaman—an elder witch whose role was to interpret the will of the Spirits. Any Sister who wanted t use the ring was required to borrow it from the Shaman, and was expected to return it to the coven afterwards. In Wild Power, her main manifesto on Nightsister philosophy, practice and role in the galaxy, Talzin complained about a Sister—Charal—never having returned the Talisman of Transformation known as the Talisman of the Raven.
Those talismans possessed strange arcane powers that both Sith and Jedi scholars could not fully explain.
In the form of gems set in rings or pendants, they allowed the wearer to take the appearance of an animal.
They were thought to work through the power of the "Spirits", a mythological embodiment of the Force in the Dathomirian culture. According to Mother Talzin, the Spirits agreed to empower receptacles in the physical world, where their essence would sleep until summoned.[1] When creating such a totem, the crafter must decide which animal will be associated with the totem. Once that is done, the crafter then seeks the ur-spirit of the specific animal in question and transfers it into the totem.
The realm of the spirits was populated by the life-energies of beings that corresponded to real animals in the mundane realm, and ruled by the universal manifestations of male and female energy. Talzin postulated that every existing species had a correspondent representative ur-spirit in the spirit realm—for example, all the ssurians of the material plane would have a single corresponding "ur-ssurian" spirit in the immaterial realm. Talismans of Transformation were believed to allow the wearer to turn into a specific creature by tapping into its ur-spirit's energy. The wearer may remain shapeshifted indefinitely, provided the talisman is intact and worn on the body, but the wearer reverts to original form if killed.[3]
If the talisman is destroyed or taken from the wearer’s body, the wearer is trapped in the animal form until reacquiring the talisman (if it is not destroyed) or dies.
History[]
The magic ring of Sister Charal, the self-proclaimed Witch-Queen of Endor, was in fact one of these devices,[4] known as the Talisman of the Raven.[1] Charal had probably stolen the ring when she abandoned her clan over a standard century before the Battle of Endor.[5] At the time of the Clone Wars, when Mother Talzin wrote her instructional manual Wild Power, she mentioned this missing talisman.[1]
When Darth Sidious came in possession of Talzin's manual, he remarked that those talismans didn't seem very different from Sith amulets, yet none of their abilities had been successfully duplicated by a Sith alchemist.[1]
Known Talismans of Transformation[]
Clan Mother Talzin’s manifesto Wild Power mentioned several Talismans of Transformation by name, including the:
- Talisman of Age[1]
- Talisman of the Bolma[1]
- Talisman of the Brackaset[1]
- Talisman of the Burra Fish[1]
- Talisman of the Eollu[1]
- Talisman of the Raven[4]
Appearances[]
- Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (First appearance) (Retcon)
Sources[]
- Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side (First identified as Talisman of Transformation)
- Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided